zondag 30 september 2012

It's been a while. Have a d20 table for what happens if people bathe in dragon's blood:

1 dragon has enough blood for 1 creature 1 size category smaller to bath in it (or 4 creatures 2 size categories smaller, and so on). The PC must be caked in blood for 1d8+1 days for the effect to take place.

PC can speak with birds,

PC can speak with nocturnal mammals.

PC can speak with diurnal mammals.

PC can speak with monotremes (good luck with that).

PC can speak with reptiles.

PC can speak with fish.

PC gets +4 against fear. Might not be blood related, but more a “I’ve just slain a dragon!” thing.

woensdag 18 januari 2012

1. If you had to pick a single invention in a game you were most proud of what would it be?
I’m currently working on weird mutations wizards get when they get to powerful, I’m liking that, but it’s not finished yet.

2. When was the last time you GMed?
January the second.

3. When was the last time you played?
Somewhere around late November. But that campaign has ended in hiatus, as all the campaigns in which I'm a player.

4. Give us a one-sentence pitch for an adventure you haven't run but would like to.
The dungeon goes deeper and deeper down, problem is: it’s located at the coast and the high tide is coming.
5. What do you do while you wait for players to do things?
Look up something, eat something, describe the situation some more to give the players more information.

6. What, if anything, do you eat while you play?
When GM’ing I sometimes forget to eat things because of the talking. But there’s usually salty snacks, brie and toasts.

7. Do you find GMing physically exhausting?
Not really. When I do get tired during the game, it’s usually because of the rest of the day.

8. What was the last interesting (to you, anyway) thing you remember a PC you were running doing?
Getting drunk, being the last in a tavern, then rush out to fight 11 zombies. By myself. Drunk.

9. Do your players take your serious setting and make it unserious? Vice versa? Neither?
It happened sometimes during my Call of Cthulhu campaign. It also happens during my DnD games, but I don’t mind it there. During my Gamma World games I applaud it.
The vice versa happens during my Gamma World games, but it’s not really an issue there.
10. What do you do with goblins?
Reasonably normal humanoid buggers. Every tribe is different.

11. What was the last non-RPG thing you saw that you converted into game material (background, setting, trap, etc.)?
In my upcoming island hopping game there will be some loosely Odyssey inspired islands.

12. What's the funniest table moment you can remember right now?
The players of my longest DnD campaign seem to think it was the point when druid talked with a badger and I decided it was a particularly grumpy and unhelpful badger. I think it was mostly my voice that did it. In the end the badger helped the group, they rewarded him with a Summon Swarm of worms spell in which they buried him.
13. What was the last game book you looked at--aside from things you referenced in a game--why were you looking at it?
The 3.5 PHB to help a new player with creating a character.

14. Who's your idea of the perfect RPG illustrator?
Ivan Bilibin has made some nice Russian fairy tale illustrations. He wouldn’t be the perfect one, though. Wim Hofman also made some very nice adventurer’s in his illustrations for children’s books*.

15. Does your game ever make your players genuinely afraid?
My Call of Cthulhu games made some of my players regularly scream. Two had kind of hallucinations after a particular game (one thought he saw a decapitated head on his fridge (turned out to be a carton of milk), the other thought she saw a dead girl in her bedroom). They never looked forward to bike home after these games.
16. What was the best time you ever had running an adventure you didn't write? (If ever)
I like running the Call of Cthulhu scenario ‘The Haunting’ for people who’ve never played rpg’s/CoC before. Every time I add something new, and every group comes up with different plans.
17. What would be the ideal physical set up to run a game in?
Some loungy chairs, couches set up in a circle, a low, large table in the centre, GM behind a higher table where he can see everyone and has enough room for notes, books, a pc to search for music/pictures/things.
18. If you had to think of the two most disparate games or game products that you like what would they be?
I guess the tone of Gamma World and Call of Cthulhu differ pretty much from each other.
19. If you had to think of the most disparate influences overall on your game, what would they be?
‘The Travels of King Wikkepokluk’ by Wim Hofman (a children’s book about a king who tires of his kingdom being the belly of a beast and searches with his three loyal subjects for a different kingdom to rule over. I’m not sure how the translation is, but the original is pretty great) and I guess the pc-game Baldur’s Gate has influenced me quite a bit.
20. As a GM, what kind of player do you want at your table?
A friend, or someone who could be a friend, who can decide what to do in combat pretty fast.
21. What's a real life experience you've translated into game terms?
I’ve not yet translated in a game, but in a few weeks I’m starting an island-hopping DnD campaign in which I like to incorporate my sailing experience of last summer (sailing at night, during a storm, with most people on board having very little sailing experience).
22. Is there an RPG product that you wish existed but doesn't?
A Regular Show system. But I’m on the verge of making that myself.
23. Is there anyone you know who you talk about RPGs with who doesn't play? How do those conversations go?
Hm, I usually don’t talk about rpg’s with people who don’t play. The people who I have talked about rpg’s and didn’t play at the time, have become players. When explaining the game, I usually compare it with the card game ‘Werewolves of Millers Hollow’.